If you are not well travelled, you chances of seeing it in person are slim. And remember, in contrast to the two of us, most Americans have never ventured beyond their county (no, not 'country,' but indeed 'county' and even city).

Oh come on, Slobodan! First of all, the U.S. is full of people who spent time in the military and traveled all over the world. They, and I, have seen terrible poverty in places like wartime Korea -- always brought on by politics of one kind or another. But I can walk downtown in Colorado Springs and see several hoboes in every block. There's a soup kitchen in the middle of town for cat's sake.

No, I don't think people are homeless because they want to be. Some simply have lost their jobs and their homes. But most of the "homeless" I see on the streets around here are people who, before the sixties, would have resided in institutions where they could be adequately fed, housed, and medicated. One poor lady in particular sits hunched over on the base of one light post or another all day long and stares at the sidewalk. Why is this poor woman out on the street instead of in a facility that can care for her? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind of windy "progressives" who, in the sixties, decided we were violating the civil rights of these poor sods by insisting they be cared for -- yes, forcibly. Of course those morons will never admit their heartlessness. They're convinced they were doing good.

Is often said that everything that can be photographed, has been photographed already. I thought the same goes for rants, especially in an era of blogs and web posts. But no, apparently there is a drought of subjects to rant about, hence this scrapping the bottom of the barrel for new subjects. White-guy photography?! Seriously!? Give me a break!

Well spoken post.

Yes, most has been done before...but we keep on blasting away...it is in our blood.

Should we rather pretend they do not exist? Or shall we assume that those homeless guys we saw in person once or twice in our life are somehow an exception, that homelessness is not a huge, widespread stain on our affluent civilization?

If someone wouldn't photograph them, how else would we know? Maybe we should organize weekend safaris or walking tours instead, through parts of our cities we otherwise would not dare (or bother) to visit?

P.S. For those interested in phenomenal photography and youth homelessness, Netflix is airing the third season of The Killing, a dark, dark crime drama, situated in Seattle. One of the best crime series on TV, in my humble opinion. Did I mention the photography is phenomenal? And that it is dark? Both in terms of the story and scene lighting, with incredibly blocked shadows and dark (again) negative space.

Yes, it is good to photograph whatever is on the street if you are a social documentary photographer. Looks like many of you quit before you start. too many 'don't do this and don't do that' running around in your head. I don't shoot that many homeless, I shoot all sort of things. But when I do take a good iconic shot of a tramp or homeless person, many times it will end up in a museum or institution.

Why is this poor woman out on the street instead of in a facility that can care for her? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind of windy "progressives" who, in the sixties, decided we were violating the civil rights of these poor sods by insisting they be cared for -- yes, forcibly. Of course those morons will never admit their heartlessness. They're convinced they were doing good.

Oh come on, Slobodan! First of all, the U.S. is full of people who spent time in the military and traveled all over the world...

That does not make you a majority. You will notice that I used the term 'most' Americans. Both you and misirlou are educated enough to understand that your anecdotal evidence counts as those "exceptions that prove the rule," at best.

But lets see how numerous are your "well-traveled" Americans. In 2011, according to a...

Quote

... spokesperson for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the US State Department. Over one-third of the population to be exact, or nearly 110 million out of 313 million Americans. That’s more than double the number of US passports in circulation in 2000 (48 million) and around 15 times 1989’s 7 million. At that last number (under 3 percent of Americans)...

So, from under 3% up to 33% in the last twenty years. Impressive growth, but hardly to invalidate my 'most' Americans (ie, 67%).

However, these are issued passports, with the great majority of the growth coming after 9/11, due to the request that Americans must have either a passport or a passport card to come back from Canada, Mexico and Caribbean.

Having a passport still does not mean you actually travel. According to this analysis, in 2009, only about 3.5% of Americans actually traveled overseas.

When I told my American friend (from Chicago) that I visited 33 countries, he said "Holly cow! And I've been to three only: Canada, Mexico and... Cleveland." Joke or not, it indicates the extent of internal travel as well. I bet I visited more US national parks than most Americans.

How eye-opening are some of those overseas travels? When I was in Moscow, working for American companies, we had numerous Americans visit our offices, some leaving USA for the first time. We send a chauffeur to pick them up at the airport, drive them in a western car to their five-star western hotels in the city, take them to our western-renovated offices, then to a dinner in $300-per head best restaurants in Moscow, and ship them back to America after that. Their comment after all that: "I do not understand why are those Russians complaining?"

(Rich) white-guy pacifiers: Some homeless are crazy and some unemployed are lazy.

Factual (as edited), and yes...I suppose pacifying to some. Maybe if one doesn't have any 'white guilt' or 'wealth guilt' and takes some personal steps to help those less fortunate, one doesn't require pacifying.

You know, asians as a whole probably take more photos than caucasian photographers. Yet, do you see the author ranting about asians roaming the world (which they do, as do caucasians) taking the same photos over and over (which they do, as do caucasians).

Anyway, once other primitive cultures evolve enough to afford a wealthy middle class capable of wasting their money roaming the world taking the same boring photos while pointing fingers at primitive peoples, you can bet they will be the same boring photos as well.

Yes -- "By the time Ronald Reagan assumed the governorship in 1967, California had already deinstitutionalized more than half of its state hospital patients."

And yes -- "With President Reagan and the Republicans taking over, the Mental Health Systems Act was discarded before the ink had dried and the CMHC funds were simply block granted to the states."

Isaac, thanks for the link.

It seems like a "perfect storm" of liberals pursuing their agenda and republicans jumping at the opportunity to make a quick buck. State institutions disbanded and patients turned to profit-centers. The same story as with prisons, which have become a huge profit-center as well. In both cases, higher profit can be achieved by having more, not less insane/criminals and spending less, not more on their treatment/rehabilitation. In many cases, authorities are required to fill empty beds in prisons or pay for them anyway. No wonder US has the highest incarceration rates in the civilized world.

It seems like a "perfect storm" of liberals pursuing their agenda and republicans jumping at the opportunity to make a quick buck. State institutions disbanded and patients turned to profit-centers. The same story as with prisons, which have become a huge profit-center as well. In both cases, higher profit can be achieved by having more, not less insane/criminals and spending less, not more on their treatment/rehabilitation. In many cases, authorities are required to fill empty beds in prisons or pay for them anyway. No wonder US has the highest incarceration rates in the civilized world.

Heavens! You had me worried for a moment: I thought you'd written incineration.

My goodness we have run far afield. I just started out with a nice little article ranting about photographers-of-privilege going out to do "projects" that lacked a depth of purpose and now we are talking about how Republicans and Democrats react to institutionalization of homeless folks. Sheesh!

What your postings lack in substance is concealed by your ubiquitous and clever comments.

Life is too short for 'message' too; nobody cares a stuff about message; there's nothing left in life worth saying. Like photography, the best has long been done.

Be happy with gloss; it's all there ever is and I value Slobodan's throw-aways highly. Used to be a guy here called Dark Penguin: he had the most memorable one-liners ever. Committed the unavoidably inevitable best-parthian-shot and took his leave. You can't better the economic beauty in that.